India cements Internship

1 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I

KARTHIKAVALLI CHITTURI

(BA3, 2014-15)

THE INDIA CEMENTS LTD.

JUNIOR MANAGER INTERNSHIP

1ST JULY 2015 – 31ST AUGUST 2015


CONTENTS

Acknowledgement ------------------------------------------------------ 3

Company Profile ------------------------------------------------------- 4

Internship Overview ------------------------------------------------------- 5

Tasks & Mission ------------------------------------------------------- 6

Results ------------------------------------------------------- 9

Skills Developed ------------------------------------------------------- 11

Critical Analysis ------------------------------------------------------- 13

Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------- 14

Appendix ------------------------------------------------------- 15

Bibliography ------------------------------------------------------- 19


ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am thankful to my mentor Mr. K.R. Gopala Krishnan, Vice President of Marketing,

The India Cements Ltd, for his extended support as a guide through the period of

internship.

I would also like to convey my thanks to all the staff of The India Cements Ltd, who

have extended their suggestions and support and have also helped me through my

learning process.

I would like to acknowledge all the architects who were the respondents for my survey

for helping me being able to finish the task, without whom the survey wouldn’t have

been completed.


COMPANY PROFILE

BREIF HISTORY

India cements Ltd. is a cement manufacturing company which was initiated in 1946 by

Shri S N N Sankaralinga Iyer and Shri T S Narayanaswami. The humble beginning of

the company began as a cement factory at Talaiyuthu, an almost unmapped in tiny

location in Tamil Nadu, India. The first plant of the company was set up in 1949 at

Sankarnagar (Talaiyuthu), Tamil Nadu, India; is the headquarters of the company.

GROWTH AND ACTIVITIES

India Cements is one of the oldest family owed corporate. The company has robustly

grown over the last two decades from having a capacity of just 1.3 million tonnes in

1989 to having a total capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per annum today. Mr. N

Srinivasan the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of the company is directly indicated

for the spectacular growth and development over the last two decades.

While cement is the core activity of the company, India cements has ventured into

related fields like shipping, coal mining and captive power which have synergy to the

main activity of the business; it is seen as a strategy of the company to avoid

uncertainties in acquiring energy and other inputs/materials in the supply chain at

competitive costs.

BRANDS

India Cements is currently the 3rd largest cement company in India and the largest

cement manufacture of South India. The India Cements products are marketed under

3 brands viz. Raasi Gold, Sankar super power and Coromandel King.

Sankar super power is six decade old brand with emotional values and provides

confidence and trust to its customers over generations. It is popular across states like

Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Coromandel King is a brand with rationale value which

promises for durability and strength of cement. It is popular in all metro cities of India,

generally trusted by all and widely preferred by Architects and Engineers. Raasi Gold

is a three decade old brand with sentimental values that is marketed as it foresees

golden times for those living in stronger homes. It is popular in states like Andhra

Pradesh and Orissa.

Sankar Shakti and Coromandel Super Power are sub brands of the above mentioned.


INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW

My Internship in India Cements commenced on 1st July 2015 in the marketing

department. I initially sought to work in the Marketing department and Operations to

gain knowledge about cement industry and the manufacturing process. The company

could not provide internship to me in operations department because it requires

outdoor work and observation in the mining quarries.

My mentor for Internship is MR. K. R. Gopalakrishnan, Vice President of Marketing of

The India Cements Ltd. He guided me throughout the course of my internship despite

of his busy schedule.

As my Internship mentor told me once that “It’s hard to identify the brand of a cement

when it is unpacked.” I had only 2 months which is quiet short to understand the

consumer buying behaviour of the company’s products, which requires me to initially

understand the buying behaviour of cement consumers so as to comprehend their

requirements and expectations before or while buying cement. Also taking into

account the fact that it is an altogether a new industry, Hence the overall mission of

my Internship was to “understand the buying behaviour of cement customers.”

In order to fulfil my internship I was asked to submit an excel document at the end of

my research with my recommendations to the company meeting all of their guidelines.


TASKS AND MISSION

The 60 days internship in marketing department was very beneficial to me because I

had to learn from the basics about the industry to applying the concepts of marketing

learnt from the Market research lecture in IESEG.

Week 1.

The initial days/week at the company were pretty slow as they wanted me to know

about the company by interacting with the employees so as to get familiar with my

colleagues and to get used to the office work environment. I was explained about all

their brands(explained earlier in the report), their backward integration strategy for

business like synergy projects such as coal mines in Indonesia, shipping division and

the number of carriers the company has acquired and the number of power plants the

company has. I also got to know that the company has recently ventured into

construction and has set up a subsidiary called India Cements Infrastructures Ltd. In

2014 as a part of their forward integration strategy for business.

Week 2.

The second week at the company picked up and I was getting onto the track of the

Internship where I was introduced to the various ways in which the company markets

and sells their brands and products. I realized that they had segmented their brands

in terms of their customers For example: Sankar Super power is marketed based on

the emotional values to the generations as it is the oldest brands, Coromandel is

marketed based on the rationale values to the professionals in construction business

and Raasi Gold focuses more on the sentimental values. (As mentioned earlier in the

report about the brands.) The company uses mediums like TV channels and News

Papers to market their brands. But above all I realised that the company uses a very

interesting technique which is promoting the brand in the IPL (INDIAN PREMIER

LEAGUE) a professional twenty20 cricket league in India, as India Cements sponsors

a team/owns a franchise called CHENNAI SUPER KINGS. Chennai Super Kings has

won 2 trophies/titles consecutively and has been awarded the most valuable franchise

in IPL 2012. Considering IPL is the most watched twenty20 league in the world, the

whole idea of India cements here was to promote the brand and to gain its own


corporate image. India cements also tied up with apparel brand and team sponsors to

help in brand promotion at minimum cost.

WEEK3.

During the third week of my internship I was given a report of an earlier intern and was

asked to read and analyse the report. This part was very intriguing for me because I

was very curious about knowing the manufacturing of cement and the core activities

of the business. The report had a very clear and thorough explanation of cement

manufacturing and I got to know a lot about the various grades of the cement like 53

grade, 43 grade and 33 grade. I also understood that each grade indicates the

compressive strength of N mm2 that the cement attains after curing for a period of 28

days. Curing means maintaining a favourable environment for continuing the chemical

reaction which is responsible to harden the cement. Apart from these I had also got to

know other facts like why cracks develop on wall, plastering, RCC. I read a very

interesting fact of that cement is stored in dry weather conditions and that they are not

stored in more than ten bags in a pile and while using the cement the bags are

removed on “First in first out” basis. These above facts in particular were very useful

for my later research part in the internship.

Overall my analysis and suggestion for the report was that it was very insightful and

that the previous intern has done an exceptional job, but I personally felt that the intern

probably had abundant time so he was trying to focus on everything that I felt in

between he went very much into details about the cement for which people like me

who have little knowledge wouldn’t understand everything mentioned unless I see the

process in live, yet was very helpful.

WEEK4.

Now that I had acquired the operational knowledge of the company I was asked to

prepare a questionnaire to start my market research to analyse the buying behaviour

of cement customers for the remaining 3 weeks. The Market Research lecture at

IESEG was very helpful for this phase: preparing a questionnaire. Though the

questionnaire was verified and corrected by my mentor it was appreciated for being


above average for the first time. The questionnaire was not confined to INDIA

CEMENTS products, it was generic to all the cement brands. The questionnaire

consisted of both open ended and multiple choice questions.

My mentor was very clear about the outcome he was expecting. He was very sure that

he did not want a question and answer session but instead he wanted a very

interactive session with the respondents so that we could get other useful and in-depth

information.

The first question was to know the name of the cement(s) the architects buy. Then we

wanted to know their source of purchase of cement. The next question was about their

criteria to buy a cement. Then we wanted to know about the category of their

construction. The fourth question was to know about how much quantity do they buy

in each lot. Finally we wanted to know if they use the same brand they specified for all

purposes of construction, if not we would like to know why. (Refer. Appendix 1)

WEEK5-8.

The Market Research phase was the crucial phase of all. During this phase my mentor

has asked me to contact architects and to finish the research/survey in 3 weeks

deadline and to submit an excel file of my analysis and suggestions in the following

week which is the 8th week (the end of internship).

The reason why we chose architects is because in India we believe that the architects

would be educated and would be easy and suitable to communicate for a formal

environment. The market research was a qualitative market research and not

quantitative because the main aim of my mentor giving me this task is for me to

develop an initial understanding of what the consumers expect from a cement. My task

here was to phone call and fix an appointment to meet in order to take the survey and

to know about what an architect would be expecting from cement, what factors

influence him in buying a particular cement, which brands of cement does he prefer,

etc. After the survey I was to summarize the information that I had acquired and make

an excel report fulfilling the guidelines of the company and providing valuable

recommendations.

The excel report consisted of 3 sheets where the first sheet was named “data” in which

I had typed the raw data given/told by consumers without any change, highlighting

various important words in various colours to differentiate so that it would be easy to

analyse. The second sheet was named “content analysis” which had two headings viz.

observations and interesting findings. The third sheet was named “suggestions” in

which of course were my recommendations to the company.

The market research course in IESEG was very helpful throughout the Market

research phase of my internship from preparing a questionnaire to submitting an excel

report.


RESULTS

Cement(s) they purchase:

Since the survey was generic we realised that 9 out of 15 respondents’ preferred

using Ultratech cement and 8 out of 15 respondents’ have told that use Coromandel.

This is because none of them buy 1 cement, all of them have said at least 2 or more

names of cements they buy.

Source of purchase:

All of them have said that they buy from dealers. But after probing in I found that few

of them say that buying from dealer or company depends on the quantity required. If

they require in bulk they contact the company and if they need less than 200 bags of

cement then they buy from the dealer.

Quantity they buy for each lot:

Surprisingly yet rationally all of them said that the quantity they buy for a lot completely

depends on the size of the lot hence they cannot precisely say a number. Most of them

have said that they do not buy a lot in advance because cement tends to become hard

when stored too long so they order whenever they realise they are going to go out of

stock.

CRITERIA TO BUY A CEMENT:

Most of the respondents say that the quality of the cement is their main criteria to buy.

Some say only price is an important criteria to buy. While some others say price and

quality are the important criteria to buy. Very few think that brand is the important

criteria to buy.

CATEGORY OF CONSTRUCTION:

Since we focused on architects all of them answered “Total contract” meaning they

have the liberty to choose the brands of cements they want to use and it’s not their

clients that choose the brands of cement and just give them a site to construct. (The

results might differ depending on the profession of the target respondents.)


APPLICATION OF CEMENT(S):

Most of the respondents have said that they do not like to change the cement for

various parts of construction hence they use the same cement for whole construction.

While some have said that they use different cements like Ultratech cement for roof

but for plastering purpose they use Coromandel cement because they observed

cracks on the walls when they used Ultratech for plastering purpose. (This question in

particular has given wide answers and has helped me in probing in depth because the

respondents were telling their issues with the cement which gives a lot of insights for

the main purpose of my research.)


SKILLS DEVELOPED

SOFT SKILLS

I believe communication skills are perhaps the first skills that anyone would notice. In

the company during my first week when I had to interact with employees in a formal

environment. Naturally since it is a new place with new people and especially a formal

organization and that I have a very little experience comparatively. I was a little afraid

deep down, but I realized that any new place/company in the beginning is going to

make me feel uncomfortable and I started to gain confidence and then I unhesitatingly

approached the employees for any information/doubts.

PUNCTUALITY AND TIME MANAGEMENT:

Time management is definitely a skill that I developed from the company because the

office had standard working hours and I was asked to report on time and to abide by

the rules. My mentor has emphasized on punctuality and how important it is to be

punctual in a work environment.

I did not want to fail to obey the rules hence I ensured that I was always 5 minutes

before time or on time but not late during the course of my internship. During the tenure

I was given time limit for almost every work and I had managed to finish the task to

meet the target date and time. I was managing different works at the same time. I was

working on different deadlines so I had to divide my time accordingly. In order to meet

the deadlines I had to do homework so that I can be efficient. Working in a company

has always taught me how to be well-planned in order to be effective and efficient at

the same time.

COMPETENCE:

During the Market research phase I had learnt how to communicate formally especially

when representing a company. During this phase I had to phone call the architects

and fix an appointment with them over phone in order to meet them in person for the

survey. This part was quiet demanding because most of them were reluctant to meet

and I had to be warm, polite and patient to be able to convince them to meet, despite

some respondents being blunt. On the other hand few respondents did not want to

meet at all and wanted to give the survey over a telephone call with time constraints

and it was quiet hard on me to get as much information as I could during the time

limitation, but I managed to get the most out of it. As a whole I deduce that my

experience in India cements certainly brushed up my communication abilities and has

taught me to adapt to respond situationally.


SOCIAL SKILLS:

In my market research phase my mentor has asked me to contact the architects but

he did not provide me the contacts of the architect clients of the company because

then their answers would be based on the company’s products and would kill the

purpose of the survey. Since I’m from management background I did not know any

architects hence I had to contact all my friends and know if they knew any architects

and so on. Doing this has really enhanced my socializing skill and I had managed to

interact and communicate with others so that I can get the contacts and also has

helped making contacts or at least know new people. I must say that this has helped

me in my networking skills.


CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The most difficult part of the internship was to get the contacts of the architects

because as I mentioned before being from a management background I did not know

any architects and as well my mentor has asked me to find architects who are

experienced in the field, which made it all the more complicated. Hence I contacted

my friends and friends of friends so that I can get the contacts but it was difficult

because the architects my friends knew were budding architects and not very much

experienced. But somehow I managed to get the contacts of experienced architects

through the friends of friends who knew the budding architects and they have given

me the contacts of their mentors with their reference.

But the problem did not end here as I found only one or two people who were budding

architects and I needed to find at least fifteen experienced architects. Hence I decided

that I would make a chain like process by contacting the architects whoever I found

and take the contact of another architect from each person I contact. Doing this has

really helped me in finishing my survey.

The other problem faced during the chain process was that some of them were not

willing to help with the contacts as they think I would go and waste one’s time. The

main problem in acquiring the contacts was that as most of the architects I contacted

were experienced, hence probably I was not taken very seriously by them since I was

an intern and not an employee of India Cements. But I managed to convince them by

being polite, patient and warm. I was also very persistent in waiting and getting back

to them whenever they had asked me to call/meet.

Another problem I faced was while trying to fix an appointment with the architects in

order to meet them in person was that most of them were not willing to meet and had

excuses like I don’t have time and so-and-so. I was required to be patient and to

understand that they are truly busy so I had to convince them by saying that it would

take just less than 10 minutes of your time and I could come during your lunch break

and that doing this survey would really help me with my project.

The limitation of the internship was I felt that since I did not get to visit the field, I could

not understand everything about cement manufacturing when I was reading about it.

Yet I gained sufficient knowledge which was very useful during my survey phase when

respondents’ used technical words with regard to cement and its grades. Hence not

visiting the field has not caused any kind of problem during the survey phase but I

hoped for a deeper knowledge into the manufacturing process as my personal interest.


CONCLUSION

My Internship in The India cements Ltd. was enriching as it was a completely

professional environment with a uniform of blue coloured shirts and black formal pants.

It was different from my previous internships as the previous companies did

emphasize on being formally dressed but for the first time I experienced a company

with uniform. Although the uniform didn’t apply to the interns, we were formally dressed

in order to adapt to the professional environment.

I had gained a lot of insights with regard to the company’s marketing techniques and

strategies. I got to understand a new industry altogether, as it is not very common to

choose cement industry to work for.

Despite of all the criticalities I faced during my internship I believe it was an experience

that will be very useful for me to think of alternatives or take up better decisions so that

I can complete my tasks and accomplish the internship. The internship also helped me

in developing various skills like Social skills, Punctuality and Time management, Soft

skills and competence.


APPENDIX

1. SAMPLE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE:

Questionnaire

Hello Sir I’m an Intern in India Cements trying to understand the buying

behaviour of cement consumers. I’d like to seek your help by providing me

with the required information and giving me knowledge. This would take less

than 10 minutes.

Personal information:

1. Name(optional):

2. Age:

A) Below 35 years B)35-45years

C)Above 45 years

3. Profession:

4. Name of the cement(s) you buy.

Essential information:

5. What is your source of purchase?

A. Dealer B. Company


6. What quantity do you buy in each lot?

7. Do you buy the above brands for all applications? If not, why not?

Conclusion:

8. What is your criteria for buying cement?

9. Your construction is of which of the following category?

A) Total Contract

B) Contract with material specification

C) Labour contract

Thankyou


2. PROOF OF REPORT SUBMISSION:

Raw data on excel sheet highlighted by different colours to differentiate

Analysis of the raw data segregated into observations and interesting

findings.


Recommendations given by me to the company


REFERENCE:

‘Company Profile’ 2014, India cements, accessed from

http://www.indiacements.co.in/company-profile.html

‘Growth Journey’ 2013, accessed from

http://www.indiacements.co.in/growth-journey.html

‘Sports’ 2012, accessed from

http://www.indiacements.co.in/sports.html

http://www.indiacements.co.in/company-profile.html

http://www.indiacements.co.in/growth-journey.html

http://www.indiacements.co.in/sports.html


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